Archive

What if one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recent history happened today? A new study suggests that a blast akin to the Laki eruption that devastated Iceland in the 1780s would waft noxious gases southwestward and kill tens of thousands of people in Europe. And in a modern world that is intimately connected by air traffic and international trade, economic activity across much of Europe, including the production and import of food, could plummet. At least four Laki-sized eruptions have occurred in Iceland in the past 1,150 years.

From June of 1783 until February of 1784, the Laki volcano in south-central Iceland erupted, spewing an estimated 122 million metric tons of Read more…

Typhoon Roke – the 15th Pacific storm of the season – was expected to make landfall in central Japan today, before moving in a northeasterly direction across the country, and possibly passing near the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The storm arrives just weeks after another typhoon swept across Japan leaving more than 90 people dead or missing and causing widespread flooding, mudslides and structural damage.

This time, about 1.1 million people in the industrial city of Nagaya in central Japan’s Aichi prefecture were urged to evacuate as the storm approached, with wind gusts of up to 134 mph.

Nagoya officials also called the Self-Defence Forces to send in troops for disaster prevention amid growing fears of Read more…

Rate this:

Did you ever get the feeling someone is watching you? If you walk down one of Atlanta’s busy streets, you’re probably right. The police department will keep an even closer eye on the city with a new surveillance camera system they say will help them fight crime.

Monitors stretch from the floor to the ceiling. Police scan every movement on the street in what looks like a scene from a futuristic movie.

It’s the Atlanta Police Department’s new operation shield video integration center, the place where police coordinate and watch more than 100 cameras, mostly downtown, as they keep an eye out for crime.

Polio has broken out in China for the first time since 1999 after being imported from Pakistan, and there is a high risk of the crippling virus spreading further during the annual Haj pilgrimage, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Nine cases have been confirmed in China and polio is now considered to have spread nationwide in Pakistan, mainly due to insecurity that has halted vaccination campaigns in areas including the Khyber tribal region, a WHO spokesman said.

“The WHO rates as ‘high’ the risk of further international spread of wild polio virus from Pakistan, particularly given the expected large-scale population movements associated with Umra and the upcoming Haj…in the coming months,” the Geneva-based body said in a statement.

Haj is the main annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which is due to start in November. Umra refers to other pilgrimages to Mecca, which can take place any time of the year.

Rate this:

Tune into CNBC or click onto any of the dozens of mainstream financial news sites, and you’ll find an endless array of opinions on the latest wiggle in equity, bond and commodities markets. As often as not, you’ll find those opinions nestled side by side with authoritative analysis on the outlook for the economy, complete with the author’s carefully studied judgment on the best way forward.

Lost in all the noise, however, is any recognition that the US monetary system – and by extension, that of much of the developed world – may very well be on the verge of collapse. Falling back on metaphor, while the world’s many financial experts and economists sit around arguing about the direction of the ship of state, most are missing the point that the ship has already hit an iceberg and is taking on water fast.